Dropzone Issue 2

HARRI NGTO N AVIA TION MUSEUMS HARRINGTON AVIATION MUSEUMS V OLUME 9 I SSUE 2 THE DROPZONE W INTER 2011 Publisher: Fred West INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Schweinfurt (Cont.) 3 Editorial 7 REMEMBRANCE 2011 Rothwell School 7 On Sunday 13th November members and friends of Harrington Aviation Mu- School Pics. 8 seum Society gathered at the Carpetbagger Memorial to remember all those brave men and women who have given their lives in the cause of freedom. Christmas Dinner 10 The weather was kind and so the service was held in bright sunshine with a stiff breeze snapping the flags at the jack staff. The Reverend Doug Spencley, Obituary 12 curate of the Faxton Benefice officiated. This was the last time that Doug will take part in our remembrance service, as next year he will be moving on to take Quiz 13 charge of his own parish. We wish him well in this new venture. Tom Reeves wasn’t well enough to attend the service this year, but wreaths on behalf of Northamptonshire Aviation Society were laid by his son Jason, and granddaughter Amber. Roy Tebbutt laid a wreath on behalf of the Harrington Aviation Museum Soci- ety, and a wreath was presented by Harrington Parish Council. SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: On page three of this issue is published the second part of the article detailing the problems that faced Gen. Ira Eaker while he was establishing the U.S. Eighth Bomber Command in Great Brit- ain. There is an Obituary for Nancy Wake, SOE. Story and pictures of the annual Christmas Dinner and the guests who attended Ron Clarke lays the first wreath, to the memory of the Carpetbaggers P AGE 2 VOLUME 9 ISSUE 2 Remembrance (cont.) Roy lays the HAMS wreath Chairs are provided for the comfort of the elderly After the service, everyone returned to the museum where light refreshments were served by Mrs Vera Tebbutt and her band of canteen helpers. Guests who had not previously attended a remembrance Service, or visited the museum, had the op- portunity to view the exhibits and talk to the museum guides. A number also watched the Operation Car- petbagger film. P AGE 3 Schweinfurt - The Battle Within In addition to losing over five hundred thousand pounds of bombs, more importantly to the survival the Battle for the U.S. 8th Air Force of the crews was the loss of over twelve hundred (Part 2) machine guns that would have been used for pro- tection against the German fighters. Capt David Reichert, USAF Another casualty of the weather was the loss of Recapitulation. nearly half of the fighter escort force. Of the four With adequate reinforcements and clear weather P-47 fighter groups that were dispatched with the over Germany, Eaker launched the 8th’s largest of- mission, one failed to find any bombers after fensive of the war to date. In a series of missions breaking through the clouds and another joined on that became known as ‘Black Week,’ the 8th the Second Air Division and accompanied them launched over a thousand bombers against vital in- on their diversion. The other two groups each dustrial targets in Germany. The first three missions joined on a division of B-17s and accompanied (October 8th - 10th) against the cities of Breman, them to the limit of their endurance. Gdynia and Munster, resulted in the loss of eighty- ………………. eight bombers and nearly nine hundred aviators. The loss of fighter escort was less pronounced Four days later, October 14, 1943, the day known than the loss of the missing bombers’ guns, how- as ‘Black Thursday,’ the bombers of the 8th Air ever, because even though the P-47s destroyed Force flew once again towards Schweinfurt. thirteen enemy aircraft, the majority of German fighters waited in the distance for the Thunder- The morning of October 14th started out in the bolts to turn for home. same manner with which the men of the Eighth Air Force had become accustomed: cold, dreary, and Once the bomber formations reached the Ger- foggy. man town of Aachen, on the German-Belgian border, the Thunderbolts had reached the limit of Once it was determined that the weather over the their fuel and had to turn for home. Without any target was clear and that the visibility required for further fighter opposition, the Luftwaffe began to take-off was above minimums, the order was given ferociously attack the bombers. Single-engine to proceed with the mission. As the bombers began Focke-Wulf FW 190s and Messerschmitt ME 109s to climb away from their fields, they realized that the came directly at the formations, firing their 20- weather briefers had been incorrect with their predic- millimeter cannons and machine guns and twin- tions. Instead of breaking out of the low clouds at two engine Messerschmitt ME 110s and 210s would thousand feet, as briefed, most bombers didn’t break stay beyond the range of the bomber’s guns and out until six thousand feet with some remaining in the shoot crude rockets into the formations. clouds until ten thousand feet. Since the bombers needed clear conditions in order to form up into the Also in the fight were Junkers JU 88s, primarily “combat boxes” that would afford them the maximum used as night fighters by the Germans, and Junk- defensive firepower, the excessive cloud cover over ers JU 87s, (commonly known as the Stuka) which England delayed and in some cases prohibited the were fixed-landing gear dive bombers that would bombers from joining with their pre-briefed forma- climb above the Allied formations and drop time- tions. fused bombs down among the B-17s. The most significant casualty of the weather was “We were briefed to be met by about five hun- the loss of the entire Second Air Division from the dred enemy fighters of various sorts. It turned out total combat force. At the pre-briefed rendezvous to be about seven hundred with fighters having time, only twenty-nine of the sixty B-24s were in for- come in from the Russian front. We saw every mation. After repeated attempts to contact the miss- thing imaginable thrown at us. Fighters, usually ing bombers, the air commander of the Second de- twin-engine, lined up at beyond our gun range and cided against flying into Germany with such an un- began launching rockets that appeared to be like dersized force and instead flew a diversionary mis- a telephone pole as they passed by us and ex- sion against the port city of Emden. Without a single ploded. Some enemy aircraft flew above us towing bullet being fired, the weather erased sixty bombers bombs on long cables hoping to entangle the ca- from the mission. ble on a Flying Fortress. We had never seen so many enemy fighters before or afterwards,” re- Engine problems along with other technical difficul- called John Piazza, a gunner in the 92nd Bomb ties would send thirty-three B-17s home early, bring- Group stationed at Alconbury, which was attached ing the total number of bombers that would cross into to the First Air Division. German territory down to 285 bombers, almost twenty-five percent less than planned. Please turn to page 4 P AGE 4 VOLUME 9 ISSUE 2 The 306th Bomb Group, also flying as part of the “The intercom was a constant chatter as the crew First Air Division, had lost three of its eighteen called out Luftwaffe fighter locations,” remembered planes to mechanical problems shortly after cross- Gene Carson, a tail gunner with the 388th Bomb ing the English Channel. Two more went down to Group stationed at Knettishall. “I knelt in silence. I enemy fire before the P-47s left the formation at had nothing to say . No one had to tell me there Aachen leaving the 306th missing five aircraft from were bandits at six o’clock and there was no need for the formation before any serious combat had be- me to report their presence. The Luftwaffe was all gun. The German fighters were relentless in their around us. We were being mauled.” pursuit of struggling units and the 306th was no ex- ception. Six of the remaining thirteen were shot While the German fighters concentrated on the down prior to the target area with two more being First Air Division, the Third Air Division proceeded to shot down on the return trip home. In all, only seven the target relatively unscathed. Aided in part by the of the aircraft from the 306th managed to bomb thirty-minute time lag behind the 1st, the 3rd also Schweinfurt and only five made it back to their base benefited from a planned course diversion near the at Thurleigh. German border that took it well south of the 1st’s penetration course into Germany and away from the As bad as the losses were for the 306th, the heaviest concentration of German airfields. As a re- 305th Bomb Group’s losses were worse, in fact the sult, the entire 3rd Air Division of over 140 planes worst of the day. Scheduled to be the low group of lost only two more aircraft than did the 351st Bomb the lead wing, the 40th Combat Wing, the 305th Group during the course of the mission. was eight minutes late to the assembly point. Upon finally reaching this point, the group commander Despite the unrelenting fighter attacks and con- tried to contact the lead group of the 40th but was stant flak barrage, the bomber pilots handed control unable to do so.

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